Abstract. Today, a variety of heuristic approaches are available to the operations research practitioner. One methodology that has a strong intuitive appeal, a prominent empirical track record, and is trivial to efficiently implement on parallel processors is GRASP (Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedures). GRASP is an iterative randomized sampling technique in which each iteration provides a solution to the problem at hand. The incumbent solution over all GRASP iterations is kept as the final result. There are two phases within each GRASP iteration: the first intelligently constructs an initial solution via an adaptive randomized greedy function; the second applies a local search procedure to the constructed solution in hope of finding an improvement. In this paper, we define the various components comprising a GRASP and demonstrate, step by step, how to develop such heuristics for combinatorial optimization problems. Intuitive justifications for the observed empirical behavior of the methodology are discussed. The paper concludes with a brief literature review of GRASP implementations and mentions two industrial applications.

. Quadratic Assignment Problems model many applications in diverse areas such as operations research, parallel and distributed computing, and combinatorial data analysis. In this paper we survey some of the most important techniques, applications, and methods regarding the quadratic assignment problem. We focus our attention on recent developments. 1. Introduction Given a set N = f1; 2; : : : ; ng and n \Theta n matrices F = (f ij ) and D = (d kl ), the quadratic assignment problem (QAP) can be stated as follows: min p2\Pi N n X i=1 n X j=1 f ij d p(i)p(j) + n X i=1 c ip(i) ; where \Pi N is the set of all permutations of N . One of the major applications of the QAP is in location theory where the matrix F = (f ij ) is the flow matrix, i.e. f ij is the flow of materials from facility i to facility j, and D = (d kl ) is the distance matrix, i.e. d kl represents the distance from location k to location l [62, 67, 137]. The cost of simultaneously assigning facility i to locat...

. A greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (Grasp) is a randomized heuristic that has been shown to quickly produce good quality solutions for a wide variety of combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper, we describe a Grasp for the satisfiability (SAT) problem. This algorithm can be also directly applied to both the weighted and unweighted versions of the maximum satisfiability (MAX-SAT) problem. We review basic concepts of Grasp: construction and local search algorithms. The implementation of Grasp for the SAT problem is described in detail. Computational experience on a large set of test problems is presented. Key words. Combinatorial optimization, logic, satisfiability, artificial intelligence, local search, Grasp, computer implementation AMS(MOS) subject classifications. 90B80, 90C20, 90C35, 90C27, 65H20, 65K05 1. Introduction. Let x be a Boolean variable, i.e. a variable that takes on only the values true or false, and let a literal be a variable x or its negation...

Abstract. In the job shop scheduling problem (JSP), a finite set of jobs is processed on a finite set of machines. Each job is characterized by a fixed order of operations, each of which is to be processed on a specific machine for a specified duration. Each machine can process at most one job at a time and once a job initiates processing on a given machine it must complete processing uninterrupted. A schedule is an assignment of operations to time slots on the machines. The objective of the JSP is to find a schedule that minimizes the maximum completion time, or makespan, of the jobs. In this paper, we describe a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP) for the JSP. A GRASP is a metaheuristic for combinatorial optimization. Although GRASP is a general procedure, its basic concepts are customized for the problem being solved. We describe in detail our implementation of GRASP for job shop scheduling. Further, we incorporate to the conventional GRASP two new concepts: an intensification strategy and POP (Proximate Optimality Principle) in the construction phase. These two concepts were first proposed by Fleurent & Glover (1999) in the context of the quadratic assignment problem. Computational experience on a large set of standard test problems indicates that GRASP is a competitive algorithm for finding approximate solutions of the job shop scheduling problem. 1.

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Abstract. GRASP (Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedures) is a multistart metaheuristic for producing good-quality solutions of combinatorial optimization problems. Each GRASP iteration is usually made up of a construction phase, where a feasible solution is constructed, and a local search phase which starts at the constructed solution and applies iterative improvement until a locally optimal solution is found. While, in general, the construction phase of GRASP is a randomized greedy algorithm, other types of construction procedures have been proposed. Repeated applications of a construction procedure yields diverse starting solutions for the local search. This chapter gives an overview of GRASP describing its basic components and enhancements to the basic procedure, including reactive GRASP and intensification strategies. 1.